10 Essentials from Continental’s Software Powerhouse
1. While in earlier times, vehicles were predominantly a comfortable means of transportation, a status symbol or part of individual freedom, they are undergoing radical change in these times of digitalization and connectivity. The software-supported functionality of the car as part of the Internet of Everything is superseding pure hardware, which was the focus up to now.
2. Software as a connection between people and machines arranges and structures information quickly and transparently. At the same time, it uses a wide range of functions that are embedded in complex systems to take the driving situation and the driver’s state into consideration.
3. The future of technology will mainly be determined by software innovations – for more comfort and even more safety. Software makes a substantial contribution to the long-term goal of Vision Zero, a future with no road traffic accidents.
4. The supercomputer acts as a double time machine that not only paves the way into the future but also accelerates this journey. In order for the supercomputer to keep up-to-date in the rapidly developing software world, capacity and storage space can be expanded.
5. With deep learning, the supercomputer uses artificial neural networks to imitate the learning processes of the human brain. In the development of self-driving vehicles, this happens by loading millions of images into the software. The software gathers AI experiences in this way so that one day it will be able to move safely through traffic. The supercomputer accelerates this process from several weeks to just a few hours.
6. AI plays a key role in the automotive industry, both in the development of new types of vehicles and in production. AI thus becomes a competitive factor.
7. AI creates the basis for enabling an intuitive dialog between people and machines. It is able to recognize individual drivers and interact with them appropriately.
8. AI uses algorithms and empirical values to learn appropriate behavior. It is only when the machine consistently integrates corresponding observations of the driver into its own behavior that user satisfaction increases, and thus also acceptance of self-driving vehicles.
9. Software plays an important role in the automation of manufacturing. In production, AI supports robots and machines in improving how they work. Machines even learn from mistakes and automatically optimize their behavior.
10. Continental is fully backing the agile development method: Each software package is tested in small steps in the overall system so as to regularly have valid, functioning and reliable statuses. Errors are continuously detected and eliminated.
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